UNIVERSITY HOUSTON FACULTY SENATE MINUTES – September 19, 2007

President Kotarba called the September 19, 2007 Fall Faculty Assembly and Senate meeting to order in the Elizabeth D. Rockwell Pavilion of the MD Anderson Library at 12:15 p.m.

MEMBERS PRESENT:  [32]

MEMBERS ABSENT:  [16]

ARCH:    M. Sabatino                           
BUS:      W. Chin (w/ notice), S. Kadipasaoglu, C. Pirrong
CLASS:  M. Haun (w/notice), A. Kugler, J. Middents
ENGR:   Y.L. Mo, A. Kamrani
LAW:      M. Duncan, S. Huber, P. Linzer 
LIB:        D. Camille
NSM:      K. Kadish, T.R. Lee (w/ notice), M. Ru

 VACANT SEATS:  [4]

CLASS:  2 resignations
ENGR:  1 resignation
GCSW:  1 resignation

VISITORS:   

John Rudley (Interim UH System Chancellor and UH President), Don Foss (UH System Senior Vice Chancellor and UH Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost), Jim McShan (UHS Vice Chancellor and UH Vice President for Administration & Finance), Dona Hamilton (UHS Vice Chancellor and UH Vice President for Legal Affairs and General Counsel), Donald Birx (UHS Vice Chancellor and UH Vice President for Research), Elwyn Lee (UHS Vice Chancellor and UH Vice President for Student Affairs), Elaine Charlson (UHS Executive Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and UH Executive Associate Vice President for Academic and Faculty Affairs), Teri Longacre (UH Ombudsperson and Associate Professor, Management), Marco Mariotto (Dean, Graduate & Professional Studies), John Antel (Dean of the College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences, Dana Rooks (Dean, University Libraries), Ed Hugetz (UHS Associate Vice Chancellor and UH Associate Vice President for Planning & University Outreach), David Bell (UHS Assistant Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and UH Assistant Vice President for Academic & Faculty Affairs), Janis Newman (Executive Associate to the UHS Vice Chancellor and UH Vice President for Administration & Finance), Oscar Gutierrez (Assistant to the Vice Chancellor/Vice President for University Advancement), Dale Alexander (Associate Professor, Social Work), Evelyn Brass (Associate Librarian, University Libraries), Maria C. González (Associate Professor, English), Laveria Hutchison (Chair and Associate Professor, Curriculum & Instruction), Charles Kaplan (Research Professor and Associate Dean of Research), Dale Rude (Associate Professor, Management), Demetrius Pearson (Associate Professor, Health & Human Performance), Avelardeo Valdez (Professor, Social Work), Mike Emery (Writer/Editor2, Internal Communications), Mayra Cruz (The Daily Cougar)

MINUTES:  The minutes for the August 29, 2007 Senate meeting were approved.

REPORT FROM AND DISCUSSION WITH THE FACULTY SENATE PRESIDENT:  Joseph Kotarba

Pres. Kotarba commented that the Faculty Senate and all of its committees have been very busy.  Pres. Kotarba announced two upcoming events:  (1)  the September 26 Scholarship and Community Conference, Music Across Boundaries, urging  faculty to register; and  (2) the October 26 Faculty Senate Fall Retreat.  The purpose of the Retreat is to invite several legislators to help senators understand how the legislature operates, to let the legislature know how state funds are spent at UH and to discuss how faculty can work with the legislature to improve higher education.  Mark Clarke, Chair of the Faculty Affairs Committee, will be helping to organize this event.

Pres. Kotarba introduced Dr. Rudley who, in turn, thanked the faculty for their support during his past five years with the University and for their support with his recent but temporary promotion.  He began to give his presentation when the meeting was interrupted by three individuals, two carrying a handmade banner that read, “Rudley Ignores Student Concerns.  Students for Fair Trade” and another carrying a camera.  Pres. Kotarba stopped the meeting.  Sen. Craig rose, called the intruders out of order and asked the intruders to leave.  Sen. Ignatiev, noting that this was a meeting of the Faculty Senate, also called upon the students to leave.  Pres. Kotarba suggested to Tim O’Brien, the spokesperson for the intruders, that Mr. O’Brien, Dr. Rudley, and Pres. Kotarba meet at another time and location to discuss the intruders’ concerns.  Mr. O’Brien responded, ”No, he’s been avoiding us.  We want to talk to him now.”  President Kortarba then asked the intruders to leave.  Dona Hamilton, UHS Vice Chancellor and UH Vice President for Legal Affairs and the General Counsel, asked the students to leave.  She told them that they were being disruptive and they needed to leave.  The interruption went on for over two minutes.  Sen. Warner asked the Chair to conduct the meeting and Pres. Kotarba announced that Dr. Rudley would postpone his address.  The intruders left.

REPORT ON THE UNIVERSITY COORDINATING COMMISSION (UCC), Chair:  Dr. Kotarba

The UCC has submitted a report on its first year to the Faculty Senate Executive Committee.  The EC discussed where to go with the UCC and made a very strong suggestion to have some definitive guidelines for judging the degree to which the University Coordinating Commission reviews all of the policies that are written at UH.  Jim McShan, Interim UHS Vice Chancellor and UH Vice President for Administration & Finance, has agreed to assemble a list of all policies enacted in 2007 to compare to a list of policies reviewed by the UCC.

          
REPORT FROM AND DISCUSSION WITH UH SYSTEM VICE CHANCELLOR AND UH SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT:  Don Foss

Dr. Foss reported on:  (1) the enrollment, headcount, overall is above from last fall.  UH is at 34,660 or 34,661.  The semester credit hours (SCHs) are expected to be up as well.  Working on Enrollment Management issues is a continuing priority for the institution.  (2) Thanks to the Board of Regents, the budget provides for the faculty to grow with new faculty lines and an increase to the campus M&O budget of approximately $1 million.  (3)  UH is starting a faculty travel fund.  There is $175,000 and Pres. Kotarba will be working on appointing a committee to work out the details to implement this fund.  (4) A working committee has been formed to work out the planning of the SERC building.  Thanks to Dr. Rudley, there are funds to get that project underway.  (5) A textbook policy was propagated and has been sent to all the Chairs.  The Deans have been asked to implement a process of review of the policy this Fall, so it will be in effect in the Spring..  (6)  Budget planning process for next year will soon begin.  The Provost offered to show detailed tables about the budget at a future meeting. 

In response to a question about whether the administration was looking at managing graduate enrollment and not just undergraduate enrollment, the Provost said that one of the enrollment challenges UH has faced in the past couple of years is a decrease in enrollment at the Masters level.  This was a particularly troublesome phenomenon due to formula funding.  Dr. Foss said that last year UH was up 7% at the Masters level.  He pointed out that was an aggregate number, so there are still problems in some units.  He added that the Graduate & Professional Studies Council was asked to look at creating new programs, including new Masters Certificates, that would be academically exciting and useful but also respond to the big market locally where a lot of professional people would appreciate the opportunity to get an advanced degree.  The Ph.D. level has the most de-centralized recruiting at UH.  The Provost has spoken to the Department Chairs and Deans about the need to be pro-active.  He has asked Marco Mariotto, Dean of Graduate & Professional Studies, to work with him to do a capacity analysis to show where UH has the opportunity to grow future new programs and what resources will it take.

Pres. Kotarba said that, before asking Dr. Rudley to continue his address, he wanted to thank him, Dr. Foss and Jim McShan, for the work they have done on putting together the travel award program for faculty.

REPORT FROM AND DISCUSSION WITH THE INTERIM UH SYSTEM CHANCELLOR AND UH INTERIM PRESIDENT:  John Rudley

Presenting a “Strategic Principles Update”, Dr. Rudley said there are seven areas of initiatives that he would cover, including:  (1) State Funding.  There is approximately $38 million in new revenue.  The State is providing $20.7 million in General Revenue and $11.7 million in additional HEAF.  Students are also being asked to support the University raising $13.8 million in designated tuition (a 6.9% increase) and an additional $2.4 million in fees.  (2) Private Support.  Michael Rierson, UHS Vice Chancellor and UH Vice President for University Advancement, is improving annual giving from $35 million to $50 million in revenue.  Regent Michael Cemo has donated $3 million toward the construction of Cemo Hall, a proposed $9 million building designed for classroom and lecture halls.  Don Foss, UHS Senior Vice Chancellor and UH Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost, has worked with the Dunn Foundation for a $1 million grant and close to another million from the Brown Foundation.  Overall there were over 23,500 gifts and pledges in FY 2007.  (3) Faculty Hires.  During the past year, UH has hired 32 new tenured or tenure-track faculty.  There have been 56 new faculty hires System-wide, of which 35% were minorities and 44% were women.
(4) Health Sciences Initiatives.  Discussions continue to give UH a greater presence in the Texas Medical Center.  The Provost is working diligently, talking with Cornell and Methodist Hospital.  (5) Federal Earmarks.  Grover Campbell, UHS Vice Chancellor and UH Vice President for Governmental Relations, has been working with members of the federal government to earmark funds for the University.  Projects receiving funding include the National Off-Shore Wind Energy Center ($2 million), Alliance for NanoHealth ($1.75 million) and the Consortium for Nanomaterials for Aerospace Commerce and Technology/CONTACT ($3 million).  (6) New Academic Programs.  Four new academic programs have been approved for UH:  BA, Chinese Studies; BS, Pharmaceutical Sciences; MS and PhD, Atmospheric Sciences; and PhD, Pharmacy Administration.  There are 10 new programs System-wide.  (7) Construction and Renovation.  The State Legislature has been good to the UH System, approving $35 million for a new building at Sugar Land and funding the $56 million tuition revenue bonds for the renovation of three science buildings.  Future construction on campus includes the SERC build-out at $30 million, Cemo Hall at $9 million, Calhoun Lofts at $96 million and a second parking garage.  A new policy effective September 1 requires any unit that wants a new building to fill out the template that explains why that building is necessary.  This will help the administration set priorities.  

UH did not adopt a flat tuition policy because it was not a good deal for its students.  Flat tuition works for universities with a large residential student base where the students take an average of 15 hours each semester.  UH students take an average of 11 hours or less per semester.  As the point is to encourage students to graduate on time, UH has adopted a scholarship program so that students who take 30 hours in a year get a discount on their tuition.  Enrollment is relatively flat.  Next year is a base year, so the administration will work on ways to increase enrollment which is tied to State funding.

The State of Texas has treated higher education and the University of Houston very well.  Overall, the budget for the UH System is $1.1 Billion with the budget for UH being $812 million.  Dr. Rudley stated that he was happy about the state of the University.  UH has the resources it needs to move forward.

REPORT FROM AND DISCUSSION WITH THE VICE PRESIDENT FOR RESEARCH:  Don Birx 

Dr. Birx thanked the President for increasing the University’s investment in the Research Division.  He stated that in the next two weeks there will be meetings of all the research clusters for the purpose of working on strategies that will be a part of UH’s funding initiatives.  He urged faculty to become engaged in the clusters and to help form a coherent strategy to keep UH moving forward.

Dr. Birx said that one of the challenges UH faces is how to be competitive with faculty funding for start up packages, some of which run over $500,000 in the sciences.  UH needs to find a way to target investing some of UH’s resources by forming core facilities to be shared by a group of faculty.  By doing this UH can bring in a cluster of hires who can go right into the facility and begin building IDC resources which eventually come back to the institution.

Why clusters?  Part of the value of clusters is empowering faculty to pick the areas of research in which they want to engage and to help determine the strategic directions.  The idea is to be inclusive.  Individual research is fine, but there are a lot of funding opportunities for clusters.  It is also a way to engage UH’s students, graduates and undergraduates.  UH can build a critical mass in areas and bring faculty into core facilities, fill them and go on to build other core facilities in other areas.  It increases funding for the University in areas that allows allocations to be made to other areas to bring up the whole level of scholarship of the University.  It integrates academic research and service, including community partnerships and commercialization.  He cited the Center for Industrial Partnerships as an example.  Relationships with industry are critical for a university that is in the heart of an urban center.  There are a lot of benefits to clusters.

In response to questions, Dr. Birx said:  (1) The GEAR (Grants to Enhance and Advance Research) program has to be focused on areas in which it can provide a demonstrated return on investment.  The Research Council will be working on refining the program.  (2) The Library is not a core facility, but a strategic partner with research and clusters.  (3) Carnegie dropped its ratings of Tier One Research Universities, but most universities still try to tell people why they are Tier One.  The faculty and administration need to define what a flagship university means for the University of Houston, what the criteria are and how the criteria apply to UH.  

REPORT FROM AND DISCUSSION WITH THE UH ENROLLMENT MANAGEMENT TASK FORCE CHAIR:  John Antel

Dr. Antel said the Enrollment Management Task Force is a very representative group that has deans, administrators, faculty and students.  The original charge of the Task Force was to deal with retention and graduation issues as well as the enrollment issue.  The EMTF has been active in consulting with University groups and faculty, including a meeting with the Senate’s Educational Policies & Student Affairs Committee.  It has tried to be inclusive and has the former Chair of the Undergraduate Council and former Chair of EPSAC as members. 

The enrollment issue is the main challenge.  If UH does not keep up enrollment, it loses State funding.  Diversity is one of the positive benefits of UH’s location, but the EMTF has to be mindful of how changes might affect those numbers.  Many of the changes that have been made is to improve the quality of students to enhance the graduation rate.

Last year the EMTF:  (1) discussed the idea of flat rate tuition, but decided it was not a good time for UH to institute it.  (2) worked to improve advising.  Advising is critical to enrollment management, both when the students arrive at UH and before they come.  UH has professionalized advising, adding 12 new positions and working with Human Resources to create three levels of advisors.  There is a basic education level for each and advising training.  (3) worked to improve Orientation.  Next year Orientation will be mandatory for all First Time in College (FTIC) students.  (4) worked on the admissions policy.  Two years ago UH instituted a rule that allows students in the top 20% of their graduating class to be automatically admitted.  Currently 50% of UH freshman are automatic admits. (5) worked with the Undergraduate Council to change the Drop Policy.  With the changes in State policies on hours attempted, UH has limited the number of drops to six total.  (6) created a Graduation Pledge which offers students incentives to continue their education.  For every thirty hours completed in a year, the student gets a discount on his/her tuition.  EMTF will evaluate this program soon and discuss how that might be expanded to a five-year program for students who work.  (7) started summer programs, like JUMP, a summer bridge program that had 150 students two years ago and over 300 last year.  This was done in partnership with the Honors College.  One discovery was that linking classes for students improves student participation and helps the students build friendships.  (8) work on block scheduling.  A lot of UH students take classes out of order or put off taking required courses until the very end.  Now students will be required to take certain classes at the start of their education.  In CLASS, a student will have to take three classes including freshman composition, math, and American history or government.  The plan is to look at these courses in terms of the curricula and scheduling, not only for the students’ convenience, but to make sure they complete required courses. 

This year the EMTF will continue to work on the above initiatives and evaluate what is being done.  The group also plans to look at UH’s clientele to determine who the students are, what their issues are and how to deal with those issues.  Working with transfer students will be one of the key projects for the EMTF this year.  The group is participating in a grant to look at the experience of the transfer student.  UH needs to work with community colleges to aggressively recruit transfer students and integrate that recruiting with advising. 

In response to questions, Dr. Antel said (1) transfer students have a separate and more specialized orientation.  (2) The EMTF is trying to keep people informed about what it is doing.  There is an annual report and Dr. Antel offered to come and talk to the Senate and other groups about what is going on.  (3) One of the reasons for the flatness in enrollments in recent years is that UH faces a lot of stiff competition from the community colleges.  UH needs to recruit better, create better programs and develop new programs to attract the best students.

UPDATE ON THE UH SYSTEM CHANCELLOR AND UH PRESIDENT SEARCH:  David Bell

The Search Committee has 20 members, drawn from across the UH System.  It is chaired by Leroy Hermes.  There were 120 nominations and applications received.  This was narrowed to 40 candidates, the files of which were reviewed by the Search Committee and reduced to 15 candidates who were interviewed by telephone.  The Committee invited seven to nine candidates to preliminary interviews.  The group will recommend three to five candidates to the Board of Regents.  At that point the committee will disband and the Board of Regents will take over the interviews.  It is likely that only one finalist will be announced. 

PRESENTATION OF THE 2007 UH FACULTY HANDBOOK:  Allen Warner and Sara McNeil

Sen. Warner announced that the 2007 UH Faculty Handbook was now available on-line at:  http://uh.edu/fs/2007_Faculty_Handbook_security.pdf   Sen. McNeil briefly demonstrated the PDF file and showed it search capabilities.

REPORTS FROM THE FACULTY SENATE COMMITTEES are available on-line at:  http://www.uh.edu/fs/FS_Committee_Reports_091907.html

The meeting adjourned at 2:00 p.m.